As I write in this weekend’s Journal, falling home prices and lethargic sales have given a boost to the apartment sector, with plenty of people willing to become landlords. With millions of families switching from being homeowners to renters, apartment-building values have soared.

That isn’t good for renters, who enjoyed falling rents, landlord concessions and even offers of incentives such as flat-screen televisions to sign leases after the recession hit the housing market. Those days appear to be over. Now, rents are rising and vacancies are falling in many markets, making it harder to find a place.

Resurgent apartment values were first seen in late 2009 in markets such as New York City and Washington, D.C., where the economy has held up better and recoveries have been quicker. But the improvement has now spread to other markets including Los Angeles, Seattle, Boston, Baltimore and Austin, Texas. There’s even demand in hard-hit Las Vegas, where plenty of foreclosed homes are up for rent.